I have been testing the Garmin Enduro 3 watch extensively over the past year. I have worn it for walking, hiking, running, kayaking, open water swimming, downhill skiing and back country skiing, mainly in Scotland and also during hiking and skiing trips to Europe and for a four-day ultra running race in Switzerland and Italy.
Features summary:
There are so many features this watch that it would be difficult to list them all. Here is a summary:
Weight (with canvas strap): 63g (on my scales)
Case size: 51 x 51 x 15.7mm
Sapphire glass
Titanium bezel
Screen: Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) (Non AMOLED)
Multi-band GPS
100-plus activity trackers
Solar charging
Altimeter
Barometer
LED flashlight
OS grid ref
Built-in mapping
Buttons and touchscreen operation
280 x 280 pixels colour display
Large font option
100m depth water rating
32GB storage for maps/music
Battery life: up to 120 hours in GPS only mode, which can be extended to 320 hours with solar charging.
All Satellite Systems mode, the battery life is up to 80 hours (or 144 hours with solar)
All Satellite Systems + Multi-band mode, it is up to 60 hours (or 90 hours with solar)
Other features: Alarm, stopwatch, GPS time sync, compass, sunset/sunrise times, health & wellbeing monitoring, weather forecasts, workout and training plans, safety tracking, Garmin pay, offline music, contactless payments, Garmin Connect platform (desktop and phone app)
Price: £769.99
See: Garmin
My thoughts: Garmin Enduro 3 sports watch
There is a great deal to like about the Garmin Enduro 3 sports watch. Many people will want to know how it compares to other Garmin watches, such as the Fenix series and I would say that while the latest Fenix has the advantage of a brighter display and being slightly lighter and thinner, the Garmin Enduro 3 wins on price and battery life.
It used to be that the Garmin Enduro series was let down by lack of mapping but this has been rectified with the Enduro 3 version.
As a quick overview, the features of the Garmin Enduro 3 that I most like are: Long battery life, handy flashlight, mapping and GPS accuracy.
What I am not so keen on chunky look, complexity and non AMOLED screen. But I can easily live with all these small issues because of the many, many great features.
Battery life
The stand-out feature of the Garmin Enduro 3 is the very long battery life. On paper (I haven’t been able to compare in reality) the Enduro 3 is better than all of Garmin’s top-of-the-range Fenix 8 models.
Yet, the Enduro 3 costs less than the Fenix 8. In fact, the Enduro 3 is £150 less than the Enduro 2. That’s an odd thing but let’s not question Garmin if they want to sell a newer and more updated model for a lower price.
One thing to note, however, it’s not easy to test the claims of battery longevity in different modes – GPS, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) etc – because of other factors, such as available sunlight for solar charging, the activity you are doing, the setting you have chosen and frequency of checking the display.
Suffice to say, though, I’ve been consistently astonished by the infrequent need to recharge the watch. It really does keep going for weeks.
A few more points
The negatives to be aware of include MIP display, rather than brighter and clearer AMOLED with the Fenix 8. MIP stands for Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) and is described as an energy efficient LCD technology designed for outdoor visibility.
In contrast, AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. This is a higher quality display technology where individual pixels emit their own light. This apparently allows for truer blacks, higher contrast ratios and more vivid colours. The Fenix 8 series utilises AMOLED displays, for example.
But I haven’t found the MIP to be an problem apart from, perhaps, where natural light is reduced and then I need to switch on the backlighting. That isn’t much of an issue, really.
The other negatives, if they matter to you, are that the Enduro 3 does not have speaker or microphone capabilities, nor satellite messaging. None of this bothers me because i have those features on my smartphone.
The watch is not slimline, so people with thin or narrow wrists should try one on before buying. I do have thin wrists but I quite like the look the watch so it doesn’t bother me. Of course, if the same watch was a bit thinner and didn’t look quite so chunky, I’d be even happier but it’s not a deal breaker for me.
The stats show the Enduro 3 is only 1mm thicker than the Fenix 8 solar, although there are other Garmin sports watches that are less bulky.
The Enduro 3 weighs 63g but once on my wrist, I don’t notice it. Note, the Enduro is one size only – there is no smaller option. In my opinion, a larger watch means a bigger watch face and I like that.
Great mapping
What I really like about the Enduro 3 is that mapping is included. I have owned the first model of the Enduro and while it has great battery life, it doesn’t have mapping and only includes breadcrumb navigation.
The Enduro 3 has a choice of mapping, with Garmin’s vector-based TopoActive maps pre-loaded. The maps do not have great feature and contour details but they are useable for many activities. If you want more detailed mapping, you can pay a subscription for Garmin Outdoor Maps+.
If you are in the UK, a better option is to upload OS map GPX routes to the watch via the Garmin Connect platform. To be honest, though, I prefer to have the OS map app on my smart phone because it’s a much larger display than the watch and far easier to make use of. The watch provides useful basic mapping and turn-by-turn instructions (called Next Fork navigation), if you upload a route to navigate, and then I also use my phone with a map app and also a paper map and compass.
Another feature on the watch called ClimbPro offers many details about the hill you are on.
This might sound odd as a watch feature but another big bonus of the Garmin Enduro 3 is the flashlight. At first, the flashlight seemed to be a bit gimmicky but I have used it so many times that I now rely on it. Holding down one of the buttons switches on a small but bright light at the top of the watch.
I use it when I need to get my key in the lock of my front door and the porch is dark; when I want to find something in my tent at night or my pack; and when I don’t want to wake my husband when I get up in the night to go to the bathroom.
So many features
Like many GPS watches, there are numerous other features that come as standard with the Enduro 3. The list of activities to track is mind-boggling and extends to more than 100. There are all sorts of activities I’ll never do, or even think about tracking, such as “rucking” and “snowmobile”, but equally are many that are very useful.
While wearing the Garmin Enduro 3 watch I’ve walked, hiked, trail run, swam open water, road biked, gravel biked, kayaked and skied, both downhill and back country.
I have found the watch to give excellent and accurate tracking for all the stats I need, such as tracking my route, distance, pace, time, ascent, descent, total elevation, position, grid reference and so much more.
The only activity that is not great for tracking is diving. There is no diving tracker on the Enduro 3 so you should look at other Garmin watches if that is your chosen sport.
The Garmin Endruo 3 also has a Garmin safety tracking feature with the ability to notify others if you are in difficulty when spending time outdoors, as well as incident detection and live tracking.
In addition, to sports and activity tracking you can keep a track on all kinds of health statistics, such as Pulse OX, ECG, sleep duration and patterns and even your menstrual cycle and “Fitness Age”. In my opinion, these should be treated as useful indicators rather than a substitute for medical attention but interesting if you want to keep a general track of your health and well-being.
The watch is quite complex to operate. There are many different menus and functions and even if you have owned another Garmin watch it can take some time to understand where to access everything.
For example, I created an intervals running session in the Garmin Connect app. I sent this to my watch but I couldn’t find it until I realised it was saved as a “run” workout and not “trail running” workout.
Saved routes also have their own “saved” routes section on the watch. Previously, on other watches, I’ve located this saved route in the “running” or “hiking” menu.
Thankfully, there are plenty of helpful tips on-line if ever you need to find anything. In this way, an AI response can be very useful because it has summarised many similar queries from other people.
The watch isn’t cheap. It is cheaper than the Garmin Fenix 8 but it’s still quite an investment. If you are looking for a great but cheaper alternative, consider the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar watch.
In conclusion, the Garmin Enduro 3 is a sophisticated GPS watch with an amazingly long-lasting battery life and good mapping.